The Conflicts Shaping the Middle East
BOOK REVIEW: “Battleground – 10 Conflicts that Explain the New Middle East”
By Christopher Phillips / Yale University Press
Reviewed by Cipher Brief Expert Glenn Corn
The Reviewer —Glenn Corn is a former Senior Executive in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who worked for 34 years in the U.S. Intelligence, Defense, and Foreign Affairs communities. He spent over 20 years serving overseas and served as a Chief of Station in two Eurasian countries and two countries in the Middle East. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of World Politics.
REVIEW: The recently released book “Battleground – 10 Conflicts that Explain the New Middle East” by historian Christopher Phillips provides a useful overview of ten ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. The author takes an ambitious approach to explaining these conflicts, trying to pack in a great deal of information into ten chapters that describe the conflicts and countries involved. Generally, Philips does a good job hitting key points and issues related to ten highly complex issues, but at times he does not mention, or glances over, important events and facts related to some of the conflicts he addresses. This is understandable given his desire to include so much information into each chapter, and the absence of some facts should only be significant for those who are looking for a “deep dive” on the conflicts he writes about. However, his book would be useful to those with limited knowledge/background on the issues he addresses and seeking to learn as much as possible in a short amount of time.
Here are some examples of some of the missing “nuance” needed for a deeper understanding of some of the region’s conflicts. In his chapter on Lebanon, the author never mentions the impact of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) 2014 invasion of the Lebanese town of Arsal and the associated impact the ISIS threat had on Lebanese security and political issues at the time, and after. In his chapter on “Kurdistan,” the author fails to mention that the inhabitants of this “region” do not speak a common language, do not share a common religion nor does he spend enough time discussing the conflicts between various ethnic Kurdish groups in the region. In discussing the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Phillips neglects to mention that this terrorist organization was founded with the direct support and assistance of the Soviet-era Committee for State Security (KGB) as a Marxist-Leninist organization and that the PKK’s leadership today continues to embrace Marxist-Leninist principles.
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In reviewing Phillip’s overview of key conflicts in the Middle East, it is notable that the author opted to label his chapter on the Palestinian – Israeli conflict “Palestine”, leaving out any mention of Israel in the title. This approach will surely lead some readers to assess that Phillip’s approach to addressing this conflict is biased. Further, his characterization of Hamas as a “militant” vice terrorist organization and failure to label Lebanese Hizballah (LH) as a terrorist group will also leave some readers with concerns about his biases. The author does note that the U.S. and some other countries consider both organizations to be “terrorists,”, but he himself leaves the reader with the impression that he does not agree with those designations, which I personally found concerning given both terrorist organizations use of terror tactics against their enemies and those who they claim to represent in Gaza and Lebanon.
“Battleground – 10 Conflicts that Explain the New Middle East” might be a helpful primer for those in a rush to learn about the Middle East and some of its many conflicts. However, anyone who has studied and/or worked in the Middle East likely understands just how important subtle nuances can be in trying to appreciate the region and the many countries and peoples that make up the Middle East and are directly linked to the conflicts Mr. Phillips addresses. Thus, the book may not be as valuable for those trying to gain a deeper understanding of the region and its conflicts.
Battleground earns a solid 3 out of 4 trench coats
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